Crooked Smile (WINNER of the MJFA'S 2017)

Chapter 17 - Choosing Sides

School the following day was uneventful. Brian glared at Marilyn whenever he couldn't avoid looking at her, and she glared back not knowing what else to do. But for the most part he and his friends pretended she wasn't there altogether. At first it came to her as a relief, because she had worried a good deal about what the next day after their clash in Ms. Richards' History class would be like, but as the day wore on the situation became increasingly oppressive. Ms. Richards acted as if nothing had happened, and Marilyn wondered if maybe she had forgotten about the ruined book and Marilyn's cheeky behaviour and would just let it go.

After 6th period, the hallways were busy with students going from the rooms of the art classes to the yard and back, setting up tables outside and carrying colourful cardboards. The period of voting for prom king and prom queen would start the following day, and all teams were busy finishing up their posters and decorations. On this particular day of the year, though, the true kings and queens of the school were the students of the art club and the art classes. It was their prerogative to help out where help was needed, offer advice even where it was not needed (or wanted), and to keep a jealous watch over the materials and utensils of the art department - more jealous than would have been strictly necessary. For students of art classes this eventually came with extra credit, too.

Marilyn was in fact a member of the art department. She had an advanced drawing class in third period, but she didn't participate in the event that day. As she walked towards the gates, she spotted Josie at a table organising scissors into one corner and paint pots into another, then calling something after Thomas who gave her a thumps-up to signal he had heard her. She was wearing an old men's shirt - presumably one of Thomas' - over her Indian blouse and cut-off jeans, and she looked crafty and casual and gorgeous in it all at the same time.

When Marilyn had been younger, in Middle School and especially as a High School Freshman, she had enjoyed this day being particularly bossy to people who would be rude to her on the remaining 364 days of the year, because for one day they actually had to listen to her. However, in the end it had never proved as satisfying as she had expected. She could give orders and raise her eyebrows like a teacher would whenever someone wasn't as polite as she would have liked. But she also had to watch the groups of friends working together towards a goal, ignoring her as long as they didn't need her approval for anything, and it had always left a bitter taste in her mouth in the end. And this year there was Michael. She needed to get home, do her homework and get some rest because she wanted to spend the night with Michael - she didn't say it out loud, but the thought still gave her special feeling: She would spend the night with Michael.

When she heard the door to her parents' house open and heard the voices of both her mother and her father as they walked in together, she knew something was up. It wasn't even 6 p.m. yet. Her mother was rarely home before 6:30 when she worked the afternoon shift at the hospital, and her father often hardly made it for dinner at 7.

Marilyn had only just sat down at her desk after taking an exhausted nap when her father's voice echoed up the stairs, calling her to come down. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and put her forehead down on her book. Damn it! Then she pushed herself off her chair and followed the call.

"Sit down," her father said, indicating the kitchen table with his glasses he had just been cleaning. "I want to talk to you."
Marilyn sat down in silence.
"Do you have an idea what I want to talk to you about?" he asked as he sat down opposite her.
Marilyn chewed the inside of her cheek. "If it's about Ms. Richards..."
Her father drew an audible breath.
"Ms. Richards," he said slowly, "called both your mother and me today and asked us to come see her after classes had ended. She told us, you ruined school property, and you disturbed the class. She said there was a considerable amount of talking back and yelling on your part."
"I didn't yell."
"You raised your voice, if that's more agreeable with you."
"I didn't particularly raise my voice, either!"
"Like you're not particularly raising your voice now?"
Marilyn bit her lip.
"Have you thought about what it's like for your mother and me to be summoned to school over our almost 17-year-old daughter as if she were an elementary school child, because she can't settle something like a spoilt book by herself?"
"I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't ruin my history book. It was Thomas. And Peter cheered him on."
"Yes, Ms. Richards told us this, too. She also said that Thomas denies having done it on purpose and that you didn't pack your book away properly to protect it. But, indeed, Thomas' father was there, too, this afternoon, and I'm sure he's just as displeased with his son as I am with you."
"He did do it on purpose! He did! I swear he did, dad!" Marilyn insisted with the same angry confidence with which she had told Ms. Richards.
Her father sighed. "The book belonged to the school and it was damaged. Someone had to compensate for it. You do understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, but-"
"No 'but', Marilyn. The damage had to be paid for. Period. You can't just walk away from a problem like this and expect it to solve itself."
"But" Marilyn said pointedly, "what was I to do about it in the situation?"
"Well, as Thomas was involved in it the teacher suggested that you both pay half of the book. That sounds like a fair deal to me."
"That's not fair at all! I didn't do it! Thomas did!"
"It's called a compromise, Marilyn!"
"A compromise, you always told me, is when both parties give in to some degree!"
"Exactly. Neither of you wanted to pay for the book. If you'd both paid half, then that would have been a compromise."
"But Thomas ruined my book! Thomas got me in trouble with the teacher. And it's because of Thomas that we're having this conversation right now! I'm supposed to pay him for that on top of it!?" Her angry confidence was starting to dissolve in considerably less confidence and more anger.
"It wasn't paying Thomas, it was paying the school." Her father voice bristled with suppressed annoyance, which made Marilyn even angrier.
"I would have been paying for something that Thomas should have had to pay for! He would have been the one getting an advantage out of causing all this trouble!"